Auschwitz 70th anniversary: evocative pictures of the railways

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) - quoted selectively:

Auschwitz 70th anniversary: Survivors warn of new crimes

Auschwitz survivors have urged the world not to allow a repeat of the crimes of the Holocaust as they mark 70 years since the camp's liberation.

Some 300 Auschwitz survivors returned for the ceremony under a giant tent.

Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed there between 1940 and 1945, when Soviet troops liberated it.

It is expected to be the last major anniversary event survivors are able to attend in considerable numbers.

A huge, white temporary building has been erected over the brick railway buildings where many of the Jews of Europe were sorted into those who were fit enough for slave labour and those who would be taken straight to the gas chambers.


Delegations made their way through the snow to lay candles at the Birkenau Memorial


A giant tent was erected at the Birkenau site for the commemoration


Germans commemorated the transport of Jews to their deaths by laying flowers on railway platforms in Berlin

[SandTEngineer]

On the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) news yesterday lunchtime they hsd an hovering view of the camp and associated railway lines accompanied by music but absolutely no commentary.  Quite haunting and moving at the same time.

[BerkshireBugsy]

My daughter (15) went on a school trip to Aushwitz late last year and told me "no matter how many times you see pictures of tv coverage nothing can prepare you for she felt being there in person"

And all though she often talks a load of rubbish this is something I believe.

[DidcotPunter]

Your daughter is right. I visited the Dachau memorial camp north of Munich in the 1970s. It was a bitterly cold overcast day with light snow blowing in the wind. Nothing can prepare you for the experience.

My daughter is going to visit Auschwitz next month.